Multiple determinants are involved in HIV coreceptor use as demonstrated by CCR4/CCL22 interaction in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs).

Although a number of chemokine receptors display coreceptor activities in vitro, chemokine receptor 5 (CCR5) and CXC chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) remain the major coreceptors used by the human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1). In this study, we used an envelope-mediated fusion assay to demonstrate low CCR4 coreceptor activity with some primary HIV-1 and simian immunodeficiency virus-1 (mac316) isolates in vitro. The coreceptor activity was sensitive to CCR4-specific antibodies and to the CCR4-specific chemokine ligand macrophage-derived chemokine (MDC)/chemokine ligand 22 (CCL22). Treatment of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs; which express high levels of CCR4) with CCL22 caused down-modulation of endogenous CCR4 but had no significant effect on HIV-1 entry, suggesting that CCR4 may not be used as an entry coreceptor. Despite expression of other minor coreceptors on PBMCs, CCR5 and CXCR4 are preferentially used by HIV-1 isolates, as shown by chemokine-inhibition data. To determine the factors involved in this selective use, we analyzed CCR4 coreceptor activity and compared it with CCR5 use in PBMCs. We used a quantitative fluorescence-activated cell-sorting assay to estimate the numbers of CCR4 and CCR5 antibody-binding sites (ABS) on PBMCs. Although CCR4 was found on a higher percentage of CD4(+) cells, CCR5 ABS was twofold greater than CCR4 ABS on CD4(+) cells. Confocal microscopy revealed strong cell-surface CD4/CCR5 but weak CD4/CCR4 colocalization in PBMCs. Binding studies demonstrated that soluble gp120 had greater affinity to CCR5 than CCR4. The results suggested that coreceptor density, colocalization with CD4, and affinity of the viral gp120 to the coreceptor may determine preferential coreceptor use by HIV-1.